The Maine Supreme Court unanimously upheld a custody order on Monday giving a father veto power over a mother’s decisions to take their daughter to church or read her the Bible, largely barring the child’s religious upbringing.
As covered last year by LifeSiteNews, the dispute is between Emily Bickford and Matthew Bradeen, the unmarried, separated parents of a 13-year-old girl. The father maintains that their daughter has displayed panic attacks since the mother started taking her to Calvary Chapel of Portland, stemming from fears that the rapture is drawing near and her father and sister will not make it to Heaven.
He produced a witness whose assessment of Calvary Chapel’s sermons claimed that they were potentially psychologically harmful, prompting the court to transfer full control of the child’s religious upbringing from Bickford to Bradeen.
Represented by Liberty Counsel, Bickford – whose child has not been abused or neglected, and whose parental fitness has not otherwise been disputed – said that this assessment offers nowhere near a sufficient basis for such a significant intrusion on a parent’s right to direct her child’s religious upbringing.
“Calvary Chapel is not a cult,” said Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver, noting that the father’s witness to that effect, Dr. Janja Lalich, is a so-called “expert on cults” but had no actual psychological credentials. “This custody order banning Emily Bickford from taking her child to a Christian church because of its biblical teachings violates the First Amendment. The breadth of this court order is breathtaking because it even prohibits contact with the Bible, religious literature, or religious philosophy. The custody order cannot prohibit Bickford from taking her daughter to church. The implications of this order pose a serious threat to religious freedom.”
But Maine’s highest court has now upheld the custody order, finding the mother’s “argument is without merit” and arguing that an “allocation of parental authority between two parents does not implicate the individual constitutional rights of either of them.”
“Bickford’s subjective beliefs did not preclude the court from finding that Bradeen is, in fact, better suited to make medical decisions, and the court neither violated the Constitution nor abused its discretion in allocating medical decision-making to Bradeen,” the justices concluded, without dissent.
In response, Liberty Counsel says that it will appeal the case to the United States Supreme Court.
“This opinion rejects the First Amendment right of a fit parent to raise her child consistent with her Christian faith,” responded Staver. “Nothing [in religious service or study] for nearly two years. And somehow the Maine Supreme Court thinks this court order does not violate her rights as a fit parent and her Free Exercise rights under the First Amendment.”
“This disappointing opinion from the Maine Supreme Court prohibits Bickford from taking her child to a Christian church because the child’s father objects to its biblical teachings.” he declared. “Depriving one parent their right to instill their religious views into their child and granting sole authority to the other parent fails to give proper protection to parental rights and religious freedom under the First Amendment. The implications of this opinion pose a serious threat to religious freedom.”
Authorities in Maine display a pattern of hostility to the rights of conservative and religious residents. The state is under federal investigation for allegedly coercing health providers into covering abortions, and another mother has petitioned the Supreme Court over a public school helping hide her child’s gender “transition” from her.